Cable tells all-male FTSE 100 boards to appoint women
BUSINESS secretary Vince Cable has today written to the remaining FTSE 100 companies with all-male boards, calling on them to take action to appoint women to boardroom positions.
The businesses with no top-level female executives are Antofagasta, Croda, Glencore, Xstrata, Kazakhmys, Melrose and Vedanta. All of them are in the traditionally male-dominated engineering, mining and chemicals industries.
“My vision by 2015 is that Britain will not have a single FTSE 100 board without a significant female presence,” Cable said. “This is not about equality, this is about good governance and good business.”
A spokesman for Glencore said the company had planned to appoint a female non-executive director but the process was halted by last year’s merger with Xstrata.
“The appointment of a female board director is a significant consideration and will be an important area of focus for the new nominations committee,” he said.